Worldwide Campaign To End Gender-Based Violence

The world-wide campaign to end gender-based violence begins today. There are many forms of violence against women, but the most awful one is the female genital mutilation. A friend of mine, Doctor Nawal El Saadawi, Egypt’s former Director of Public Health, opened my eyes to this problem in 1976 when we were at Wellesley University attending the International meeting on Women and Development. She told me that circumcision was most often performed on young girls at the age of seven or eight to preserve their chastity by reducing the desire for sexual intercourse. This operation was done to her by a midwife at her home with the presence of female members of her family and her mother without her consent. She said that the psychological impact has remained with her for a long time. Later in 1980, She wrote a chapter on “Circumcision of Girls” in her book, the Hidden Face of Eve. The World Health Organization estimated that between 100-140 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation, and every year 2 million girls are at risk from this horrible practice. Most of these girls live in 28 African countries, and a few in the Middle East and Asia. They are also increasingly found in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America, mostly among immigrants from countries where female genital mutilation is the tradition. About 80% of the cases involve excision of the clitorist and the labia minora. The more extreme type, infibulation, is found in Djibouti, Somalia and northan Sudan. In some countries, more affluent families seek the services of medical personnel to perform the operation. This medicalization of female genital mutilation should be stopped. Even when performed in sanitary condition, the operation is still unethical and violation of girls’ and women’s human rights. This practice has been consistently condemned by WHO, United Nations Organizations, and international communities for the last three decades. There have been changing of attitudes among local leaders about the dangers of female genital mutilation. it is my hope that this year’s campaign to end gender-based violence will intensify global efforts to end this cruel practice once and for all.

Filed under Gender Issues |